I listened to
Stars & Topsoil for the first time while
waiting for my train home at Wimbledon Station. It seemed
strangely adapted to the situation. Listening to any
Cocteau Twins record is like watching time go by without
being affected in any way by it. Time has passed since
they released Blind Dumb Deaf, their first
single. Eighteen years to be precise. The song though,
is a fresh as it must have been then. I say “must have
been”, because I only came to listen to the Cocteaus
at the end of the eighties.
I came across the Twins by chance really. I knew of
the name, but never had the curiosity to go any further.
The first album I happened to listen to was Pink
Opaque, a compilation of EPs, album tracks and
unreleased material. Strangely enough, what initially
captured my imagination was not Liz’s voice, that would
come later, but the hypnotic bass line on Wax &
Wane. I had troubles to deal with the voice. It
was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and I had to
play the record a couple of times before I could familiarise
myself with this un-earthy voice, and start learning
to appreciate it. That’s when I really fell in love
with the Cocteaus. In the space of a few weeks, I’d
bought all their albums, from Garlands to Blue
Bell Knoll, and was frenetically putting as many
tracks as I could on tapes so I could take them with
me, anywhere, everywhere.
A few months later, Heaven Or Las Vegas was
released, and remains to this day, one of my favourite
albums of all time. I would wake up every day, for weeks,
listening to Cherry-Coloured Funk, Pitch
The Baby and Iceblink Luck. I loved the
multi-layered vocals, the guitar effects, and still,
these bass lines. I never tried to make sense of the
lyrics. And that’s what's fascinating about the Cocteaus:
there is space for imagination in there songs. Not unlike
an impressionist painting, everything is suggested,
what you make of it is your own choice.
Stars & Topsoil compiles some of the finest
songs from the 4AD period, from early releases to Heaven
Or Las Vegas. Not a best of as such, just a voyage
through different moments of their recordings with the
label. Every fan will regret the absence of some tracks,
but none of them would ditch any of the songs featured
here.
The departure from 4AD to Fontana, after Heaven
Or Las Vegas, would lead to the band's less imaginative
album, Four-Calendar Café. And then
there was Milk And Kisses, and an album half
recorded that would remain unreleased.
These days, Simon manages Bella Union, the label originally
set up to release the Cocteaus’ recordings, Robin gives
him a hand, produces others artists, and works with
his new band, and Liz is recording her first solo album.
They might never work together again, their lives have
gone their separate ways, their legacy is this compilation,
a good introduction for the ones discovering the band,
a souvenir album for the fans. |
